02 - The Fortune Teller

After hearing this phrase, Ataz was furious, and with his new feline instinct, he managed to extend out his sharp claws and scratched the boy's face. The boy was extremely furious and raised the stone in his hand to hit Ataz, but something held the stone in the boy's hand before he could even get it close to the cat.

"What the fuck are you doing, Hector?"

A man about 50 years old, big and muscular, wearing brown trousers and a wrinkled social shirt appeared standing behind the boy. On his face he had a big mustache that gave an air of respect and superiority. The man took the stone out of Hector's fist and gave him a light push with one hand, but it was strong enough to knock the boy to the ground.

"Why aren't you at school? And why are you hitting a cat? I should beat you up." The boy who had seemed so tough when humiliating Ataz, was now lying on the floor, almost crying, afraid of what the man was going to do.

"Dad, I'm sorry; I was just hanging out with my friends. I didn't do anything," said Hector, still trembling on the floor.

"Get up and go to school. I don't want to see you in front of me today," the boy's father said with his hand on his belt, implying that if his son did not obey, Hector would have problems.

The boy got up, running with his head down, and went towards his school with his frightened classmates.

Ataz, who was still lying on the ground with his hair all standing on end, looked at the boys running away and heard some of the boy named Hector's classmates teasing him for having been scolded by his father. The cat turned his small face to Hector's father, who was now standing with his hand on his belt, watching the children go. The man turned to continue on his way, but before doing so, he looked at Ataz lying on the floor; he looked deeply into his eyes for a few seconds, without showing any expression. The man then turned and went the other way.

After what had happened, Ataz got up and the only thing he could think of was that he needed to understand immediately what was going on with his magic, or at least take shelter in a safer place. He started walking in the direction of the sign he had seen before.

When he got to the sign, a little tip was written on how to get to the place where the fortune teller was located. He would have to cross the Frenezzi Park that was close to him, and enter into the forest behind it where he would find a trail and a wooden house at the end of that trail.

He turned, and managed to spot what would be the Frenezzi Park that was written on the sign. It was at the end of the street where Ataz was standing currently. The cat observed that there were not many people entering the park, even though there were so many of them walking on the streets on that not so sunny day. He then started walking towards his destination in the clumsy fashion he had developed.

As he walked, he began to realize how the people were acting around him. Women walked alone; men did not carry swords or armor; they were all of them unarmed. There were no horses or carts, and no one seemed to be physically preparing for a battle.

"You people haven't seemed to be afraid in a long time. It would be easy to defeat all of you. This is an insult to me," he thought confidently as he walked.

Without even realizing it, Ataz had reached the end of the street. In front of him there was a huge sign written 'Parque Frenezzi' which indicated that Ataz seemed to have arrived at the right place. At the entrance, it was possible to see a large open portal full of flowers. Passing through the entrance, he saw a cat rummaging through what looked like huge metal cans, and these cans were filled with some strange containers that Ataz had never seen. He came closer to one to find out what it was and smelled a horrible odor from inside. He had never smelled anything like it before; it was kind of sweet and rotten, and some mosquitoes came out of the container.

"Was that cat considering eating this? Rotten animals; that's why I smell so bad," grunted Ataz.

As he walked through the park in search of the beginning of the trail into the forest, he began to wonder if it would be better to train some of his magic before venturing out there. Even though he needed help, he didn't know if he might find some kind of enemy in there. Mainly because if a fight broke out, it would involve magic, he knew he wouldn't be able if he had none of his strength. So he decided to move away from where there were more people so that he could concentrate more.

Ataz found a corner near a tree where there were some birds. He thought

it was the perfect place mainly because he could use the birds as targets. Ataz sat down and concentrated his whole mind on his body. He tried to feel how much mana was inside him and wanted to make sure the rest of his energy could be controlled. Even though he knew that he had magic, he didn't know what kind it was, so he couldn't know how to restore his energy and become stronger.

Ataz closed his eyes. He could feel the light wind hitting his hair and did not hear anything; everything was silent. He felt the blood running through his body and it was as if he were floating lightly on his paws. His heart was pounding and he felt that everything was starting to come back to him. He could feel the presence of the birds closer and closer to him and then Ataz felt the same feeling he had had when he had completely mastered magic. Then he opened his eyes quickly and placed his paw on the floor, uttering the words, 'Corporis Ignis'. He stared at one of the birds, feeling his heart racing, the blood pounding, hoping to see that poor unwitting bird burn, and then... nothing happened.

He was frustrated and angry. Next to him there was a dove pecking at some crumbs on the ground. Ataz angrily decided to train his feline skills. He positioned himself with his tail and ears standing up and jumped on top of the hungry dove, but he ended up getting in the way of his own landing, which allowed the dove time to notice and take flight, landing on top of the small tree close to Ataz, seeming not to care much about what had happened.

He tried again, however, now he lowered his body and walked slowly towards the bird this time so that it could barely notice his movements. Ataz let his sharp, little claws out and tried to climb the tree slowly so that the dove would not hear him. When he was almost at the top, he saw the dove and prepared to jump. He lowered his little body and it was possible to see the pupils of his eyes growing, leaving the eyes totally black. Then, Ataz pushed with his front and rear legs towards the bird, making his jump high and fast so that he could jump on the bird and catch it. However, even though he made a great jump, he had not thought that even though his body was small and light that a cat was not as light as a bird. In that moment he fell on top of the dove. The tree branch beneath him broke and caused Ataz to release the bird that now flew away, and he, with his new cat instincts, turned in the air and fell with his paws on the ground as if he had glided.

He was unable to catch the bird, but he still felt rewarded for having managed to complete a good jump. Now that he saw that he was at least a little bit more prepared in case something were to happen in that cabin with the fortune teller and he had to flee. Ataz was about to head for the trail, but before he did, he heard his stomach growl with hunger. It had been a while since he had eaten and he didn't want to do the same thing as that cat he encountered, scrounging through the trash to look for some crumbs. It was then that he saw next to him a little lady sitting on a bench with a small piece of bread in her hand, hurling crumbs at the birds in front of her.

He realized that he was so hungry, that seeing those bread crumbs already made his mouth water. He started to think about how he would steal that old lady's bread. Even though he had a good jump now, he couldn't risk missing his snack due to a problem on the way. He realized that she was sitting on a large bench made of wooden strips that he could stick his arm through and pull the bread out from under.

He went towards the rear of the bench, but at that moment Ataz looked around and noticed a family also feeding the pigeons, and near them there was a cat asking for food. He had his tail up, rubbing himself between the legs of humans, who ended up finding it cute and gave some food to the pussy.

"I am not going to do that. What a humiliation. I would rather go hungry than please these weak humans for some bread crumbs." Ataz, as he said this, heard his stomach growl with hunger again, and looking at the cat that was now eating the food, he felt a little envious.

He started to approach the old lady. He stopped for a moment, almost at the lady's side. "I swear if I don't get anything out of this, I'll kill this old woman."

Ataz raised his tail and caressed his head on the old lady's legs, intertwining his small body between them. The old lady bent down holding the bag of bread close to her breast and said in a pleasant, sweet tone, "Oh, hello little friend. Are you lost?" Ataz then stopped in front of the old lady and raised both paws, wanting to do something cute to impress her.

"Come on, you energetic being. Look at me with your tiny brain and be enchanted by any gesture that a stinky street cat makes for you. you-" "*Meow*" Ataz said gently towards the old lady.

"Poor thing; are you hungry? Have a little piece of bread here." She tossed a piece of bread towards the cat.

Anyone looking at that scene would not have believed that that little kitten sitting near the doves being fed small pieces of bread by an old lady before could have ended an entire city in the blink of an eye.

After he had been eating for a while, the sky started to get dark, becoming cloudy with a grayish tone, informing those who saw it that it was about to rain that afternoon. The old lady then looked up and said in a worried tone, "My goodness, it's going to rain. I need to go home and collect my clothes. Alright children, take care of yourselves, okay?" She got up, collecting her bags, and started walking towards the exit of the park. Ataz watched her leave and decided to return to following his path into the woods. Incredibly, he was unwilling to show any kind of thanks to the woman, as if the lady had done nothing more than her obligation to serve him.

Arriving at the end of the park, he found what would be the beginning of the trail. There was a sign written: 'Careful, unprotected area'.

Ataz started to venture down that small narrow dirt path. As he walked, he could hear birds and insects, but there was something else in the background that the little feline's ears could hear… It was like voices whispering something. He couldn't quite understand what it was that they were whispering, because they were so far away, but Ataz didn't feel afraid or any less curious to find out what was there. He simply followed the path with the feeling that he may end up finding more than just the answers he needed.